Bell Peppers: Growing Practices and Nutritional Value

Bell Peppers

Growing Practices and Nutritional Value

Roby Jose Ciju

Copyright © 2019 AGRIHORTICO

All rights reserved.

https://www.agrihortico.com

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all home gardeners, farmers, commercial growers and all plant-loving souls who have a genuine interest in growing bell pepper/sweet pepper plants...

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As we know, everything worthwhile is always accomplished through team effort only. I would like to acknowledge the efforts of my staff at agrihortico.com for helping me to republish this version of my book Bell Peppers with additional information and relevant images. Hope my readers will find this book very useful in their gardening/farming endeavors...

Bell Peppers: An Introduction

Bell peppers or sweet peppers, as they are commonly called, are an important group of chile peppers. All chile peppers belong to the genus Capsicum and the family Solanaceae. Cultivated capsicum includes at least 25-30 species of chile pepper plants, FIVE of which have been domesticated. They are grown for different purposes such as for vegetables, spices, and condiments. All chile peppers, including bell peppers are tropical and subtropical in their growing habit. Chile peppers are of American origin.

Figure 1: Bell Peppers

Mainly FIVE species of chile peppers are in cultivation. These are Capsicum annuum, Capsicum pubescens, Capsicum chinense and Capsicum baccatum and C. frutescens.

Among these, Capsicum annuum is the most cultivated chile pepper species. Most of the chile pepper varieties that are available in the market belong to the group Capsicum annuum. Bell pepper also belongs to this group.

Taxonomy: Taxonomic classification of Capsicum annum is as follows:

Plant Description: Capsicum annuum is an herbaceous annual but can be grown as a highly branched, shrubby perennial. The plant grows to a height of one meter or more and has glabrous/smooth or pubescent lanceolate leaves, depending on the cultivar type. Flowers are solitary, white or off-white in colour, sometimes purplish colour depending on the cultivar. Fruits are berries that may be green, yellow, orange or red in colour when ripe. Fruit size, shape and pungency level also vary with cultivar type. Like other chile peppers, C. annum is also tropical to subtropical in growth habit and requires very warm, humid, frost-free climate with lots of sunlight for its growth. It prefers highly fertile, humus-rich, well-drained loamy soils. Propagation is by seeds and seeds germinate in 3 - 4 weeks. Transplanting is done when seedlings are about 8 - 10cm tall. The plant needs moderate watering and manuring for its growth.

Figure 2: Flower of Bell Pepper Plant

As mentioned earlier, scientific name of Bell pepper is Capsicum annum. The edible portion of the plant is its pod shaped fruit. It is a popular exotic vegetable used in many continental food preparations. It is a cool season vegetable. Bell pepper is also known as sweet pepper and capsicum.

Bell pepper can be grown both as an open field crop and as a protected greenhouse crop. Under protected conditions, bell pepper can be grown throughout the year.

In this small book, we will focus on a detailed account of cultivation practices, post harvest management, processing and marketing practices and nutritional information of various types of bell peppers.

Figure 4: Container Growing of Capsicums

Bell Peppers: Varieties

There are several varieties of bell peppers in different colours are available in the market. There are green bell peppers, red bell peppers, yellow bell peppers, orange bell peppers, white bell peppers, and purple bell peppers in the market.

Green Bell Peppers and Red Peppers: These are bitter and slightly pungent. Red peppers are ripened green bell peppers and are sweet. In fact, red peppers are the sweetest and the most non-pungent bell pepper among all the bell pepper varieties.

Figure 3: Red, Orange and Yellow Bell Peppers

Yellow Bell Peppers: They are less pungent and sweeter